Want to know where your members of Congress stand on federal employee and retiree issues?
Federally Employed Women (FEW) and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) make it easy with their scorecards rating how members of Congress voted on bills important to the organizations.
“The vast majority of scores were either 30% or 90% or 100% broken down by party and very similar to last year’s scores,” Janet Kopenhaver, FEW’s Washington Representative, said in a statement released with its scorecard.
Kopenhaver didn’t say which party ranked where. She didn’t have to.
The legislators cited as “Federal Worker Champions” for ranking at the top of FEW’s list for at least four straight years are all Democrats.
They are: Reps. Stephen Cohen (Tenn.), Elijah Cummings (Md.) and John Sarbanes (Md.) who made the list for six years; Reps. Jim McGovern (Mass.), William Lacy Clay (Mo.) and Allyson Schwartz (Pa.) for five years; and Reps. Janice Schakowsky (Il); Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) and Gerry Connolly (Va.) for four years.
In the Senate, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) had a top ranking for five consecutive years. Sens. Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.) were at the top for four straight years.
“The issues chosen were those of most importance and priority for FEW members,” Kopenhaver said. “Among the priorities were not supporting several anti-federal worker bills, and co-sponsoring the Equal Rights Amendment and the Paycheck Fairness bills.”
NARFE’s scorecard covers five House votes and four in the Senate on such issues as federal pay, retirement and workers’ compensation.
“After two years of divided government, voters will determine if there should be a change,” says the introduction to the scorecard, which was published in the September/October issue of the NARFE magazine.
NARFE has an online tool that allows readers to determine how their representatives voted. The organization encourages readers to “Start at www.capwiz.com/narfe/officials/ and insert your ZIP code to produce a display of your congressional delegation and key votes for the last 10 years.”
Twitter: @JoeDavidsonWP
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